Conclusion

The Fujifilm FinePix F600EXR is a very modest upgrade of its predecessor, improving the EXR Auto mode in low-light, expanding the GPS functionality, adding a rather superfluous intelligent digital zoom mode, and perhaps best of all not popping-up the flash automatically whenever the camera is turned on. Perhaps the best upgrade that the F600EXR has undergone is to its price-tag, with a much lower UK RRP than the previous F550 (although the US price has unfortunately crept up very slightly).

The F600EXR has the same 16 megapixel EXR sensor as the F550, with an ISO range up to 12,800, fast continuous shooting speeds and slow-motion movies, and full 1080p HD movies. GPS functionality is the icing on a very rich cake, working well in both rural and built-up areas, something that most cameras with this feature struggle with, although it does adversely affect the battery life. It's not all good news, however, as the 16 megapixel sensor also results in noise and loss of fine detail at the slow speed of ISO 200, quickly becoming all too obvious at ISO 400. The F600EXR also suffers from the same slow RAW processing speeds that adversely affected its predecessor.

Despite these short-comings, the Fujifilm Finepix F600EXR is still a stylish, full-featured and likeable compact camera, with the 15x zoom opening up a wealth of framing possibilities. Image quality remains a significant problem though and the list of improvements is very short, so it's great to see a significant price-drop in the UK at least, which goes some way to making the F600EXR worthy of our Recommended award.